Seminar Attendance

I was at Brians seminar in Nottingham Sunday. I really enjoyed the day (couldn't make Saturday unfortunately) but was a bit surprised/disappointed to see not many people in attendance.

John Donaldson came from Ireland, Debz Bell came from Belgium, Kevin came from Wales, Eddie and Tristan came from Preston...

Seems some people, usually the same few, are prepared to really make the effort to go to seminars, wherever they are, and others unfortunately can't be bothered even when they're practically on their doorstep.

If it's expense then it shouldn't be too much of a problem to share a car if several of you are going from one dojo and split the fuel costs, you can double up on rooms again to save money, if that's the problem.

Please let us know why you aren't attending mini seminars like the recent one at Brians.

Attendance is always a problem,trying to make members feel lazy for not attending is the wrong way to go about improving this. If members start to realise they really are missing out on good training opportunities then I hope more Iai practitioners can try to train at Brian's courses. I have always loved the effort needed to do the two days, it is always hard work, this course was no different, Brian demanded that I make sure we all train with the spirit expected by Sensei Iwata, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Thanks for all your instruction and effort over the weekend. I enjoyed it and got lots of stuff to work on, most importantly my posture.

I'm aching from Sunday, which either means it was a very hard day training or I was using way too much strength which is something I've been trying to work on or somewhere between the two. Reg and Brian are both great examples with regard to economy of waza and using power only where necessary. Makino Sensei too, I remember Ozu at the end of 2007 where we were being drilled, I was aching everywhere but Makino Sensei was doing waza for waza with the rest of us and he's well into his 80's!

I still have a lot to learn...

I hope not to make people feel lazy but they did miss out on a packed weekend. Omori Ryu, Tatehiza no bu, Bangai no bu and Oe Sensei's 7 TUNK.

I thought maybe it was actually a bit too much for some people that had never challenged some of the waza before but I'm sure they enjoyed it.

Hi Ian, great course report thanks, yes I did try to give the guys a lot of forms to do, Brian wanted a lot covered and I was happy to follow his orders. I do sometimes let my enthusiasm take over and am very happy with the effort that every other Iai student put into the practice.